Andy Ho, head of trading for Asia Pacific (APAC) at Deutsche Asset Management, has been making waves in the
industry through his endeavours
to build the best in-class trading
desk for the region. He is regarded
as one of the best up-and-coming
talents on the buy-side, having
featured in The TRADE’s Rising
Stars programme last year. His
experience spans trading and
portfolio management at major
institutional organisations. During
the three years he spent at BNY
Mellon Investment Management,
Ho managed to triple volumes and
build out the firm’s platform to
trade multi-asset classes.

He stresses the importance of the
Chinese market for a buy-side’s
trading operation in APAC. In 2016,
the Chinese market accounted for
60% of the region’s trading volume.
This, in part, is due to review of
restrictive measures put into place
following the global financial crisis.
“The low volatility in the Chinese
market last year a;orded the regulators to reassess the restrictive
measures that they put in place
after the crash. Many of them were
eventually lifted,” Ho says.

Driving liquidity

Further developments include the
launch of a closing auction session
in Hong Kong, which gives traders
an extra 10 minutes trading at the
closing price. The initiative was
strongly supported by the industry. A consultation published just
before its launch revealed 31 out of
41 exchange participants in Hong
Kong – which represented 60% of
market share by turnover of securities market – agreed with the idea
of a closing auction.

“The introduction of the closing
auction last year was universally
received. We have seen a spike in
volume at the close of market and
passive mandates with close as
benchmark are comfortably trading
there,” Ho says. He adds that all
of these regulatory changes have
been positive e;ects on liquidity in
APAC, particularly China.

As the APAC region reaps therewards of a more relaxed stanceon certain regulations, Europe re-mains on the cusp of implementingAuthorities relaxed the rules ontransaction size and trading costsfor stock-index futures. Ho saysthese changes, partnered withthe launch of the Shenzhen-HongKong Stock Connect, have hadpositive impacts on liquidity.

The Shenzhen Stock Connect
was established in December, and
together with the existing Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect,
foreign investors have been handed
access to the Chinese onshore market, and vice-versa for domestic
mainland investors. “It has been
a huge boost to the market this
year, with large outflows from the
mainland into Hong Kong,” Ho explains. “The Hang Seng index has
increased 8% year to date, which
makes it one of the best performing
markets in the world.”

“Regulators reassessed therestrictive measures that they putin place after the crash. Many ofthem were eventually lifted.”